At the start of Dublin Oldschool, aspiring DJ Jason Kelly has what might be seen as a rough morning. He wakes up on the streets, is beaten with a stick and has money taken off him by some children, he’s hours late for work and has to leg it from the guards after a drug deal carried out with an amazing lack of subtlety, even for the streets of Dublin. And he loses his phone. If this is meant to show a man down on his luck however, Jason himself certainly doesn’t see it that way. He’s got far bigger things on his mind; the bank holiday weekend is about to start and Jason is gasping for the sesh. Both comparisons to Trainspotting and declarations that they should be avoided are well-worn territory for this film, but there’s a difference in perception between Ewan McGregor’s heroin-loving Renton and Emmet Kirwan’s pill-popping Jason. Renton saw himself as choosing not to choose life, consciously picking the numbing effects of heroin to gloss over the realities of rubbish modern life in Edinburgh. Jason is more in denial about just how much drugs are his life, determined to keep the party going no matter what. That determination to keep the party going keeps things fun, but presents problems too, both for Jason and for Dublin Oldschool in general.

The eighth amendment of the Irish constitution is ever-increasingly a controversial issue. For those who don’t know, the amendment equates the rights of an unborn child with the rights of the person carrying it, essentially meaning abortion in all cases is illegal in Ireland. The opposition has been gaining major traction since the Marriage Referendum last year saw such a massive turnout of young voters. IFTA award winning director Dave Tynan has released a short film titled ‘We Face This Land’ featuring a group of women in Repeal jumpers walking into the sea.

The women recite lines from a piece written by novelist Sarah Maria Griffin. They insist that a body is just a body, not a vessel or country and consequently “the laws of the church have no place on your flesh”. They go on to question the fact that a veterinarian can abort a calf if a cow is in danger, asking “How is it that livestock is worth more to this land than us?” The film powerfully demonstrates the lack of choice Irish women have. 11 Irish women must ‘go to the sea’ every day to get this medical treatment.